Driver Plummets 25 Feet Into Cuyahoga River, Lives

For the second time in three months, a vehicle lost control and flipped into the Cuyahoga River.

On Tuesday at 11:30 a.m., the Akron Police and Fire Departments were alerted after a jogger spotted an overturned car under Akron's North Portage Path bridge near the Portage Trail/Akron Peninsula Road intersection, reports the Akron Beacon Journal.

Emergency crews scrambled down to the car operating under the assumption that someone could be trapped in the wreckage.

Cuyahoga Falls Police were also called to the scene to aid in the search, according to police radio dispatches.

As crews pulled the car from the river, the driver, identified as Robert Buger, 50, walked up to the accident scene, reports WKYC Channel 3 News.

According to Buger, the accident occurred at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday morning when he veered off the road to avoid a deer, and subsequently plummeted 25 feet down to the riverbed.  

Buger then escaped from the overturned vehicle with only minor injuries and walked to his home, located about two miles away.

Akron Police reported he will be cited with failure to control.

Dump truck driver dies after Cuyahoga River crash

Christopher Burgess, 41, who miraculously steered his speeding dump truck through a busy intersection at Portage Trail and Akron-Peninsula Rd. – and a parking lot – without hitting any people, cars or buildings, died of blunt trauma to the neck after crashing into the river on July 5.

Ohio Highway Patrol investigators found the dump truck’s brakes had failed, which led to the accident.